Svindal quickest in lone Wengen training run down shortened track

WENGEN, Switzerland – Norwegian superstar Aksel Lund Svindal set the pace in the one and only training run down the Lauberhorn on Thursday morning. The current leader in the downhill standings clocked a time of 1:49.66 seconds down a shortened track which used the alpine combined downhill start just above the Hundschopf jump. Close on Svindal’s tails were Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr and Italian Peter Fill who finished a scant 0.04 and 0.08 seconds behind, respectively.

Race organizers opted to utilize the lower start due to bad visibility on the upper section of the course, as well as factoring in the weather forecast for the coming days. Although an abbreviated course, Svindal’s time of just under two minutes shows that the Lauberhorn still can be considered “full length” by World Cup standards.

Snow conditions that forced the cancellation of yesterday’s training run were turned around this morning thanks to the tireless efforts of the course crew along with a cooperative, clear, and cold night. The lower sections of the course were injected with water and were as firm as one can find anywhere on the World Cup and should hold up throughout the weekend.

“It was a good run. There’s some cleaning up to do but it’s really bad light today. That makes it really hard to make a clean run because you can’t see all the terrain and your skis are bouncing all over the place,” said Svindal of his run. “I need to clean it up a little bit before race day for sure, but the speed is there and it looks alright.”

The American Downhillers were led by Travis Ganong, who finished just inside of the top 10 in ninth, 1.44 seconds behind Svindal.

“It was OK, the snow was really icy, they injected a lot of the really tough sections,” explained Ganong. “Yesterday, it was like six or seven inches of mashed potatoes. It was actually fun to ski and be able to push on the ice and get something out of the ski today.”

The alpine combined is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. CET Friday, Jan. 15, with the downhill taking place on Saturday. Slalom action is scheduled for Sunday.

The FIS also announced that the canceled World Cup giant slalom race from Adelboden has been rescheduled in Hinterstoder, Austria, on Feb. 26.

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